Rapid survey of the birds of the Atewa Range Forest Reserve, Ghana

Executive Summary
and others to continue to:
a) Deepen the level of commitment to consultation, as
the communities would like to see more direct interactions
between themselves and others and to be better
informed,
b) Take traditional practices into consideration in every
interaction with communities and the forest,
c) Demonstrate social responsibility in hiring practices,
hiring from local communities whenever possible,
d) Relate and interact with all community chiefs during all
project stages, and
e) Strengthen monitoring of the forest and its exploitation.
Representatives from the Ministry of Lands, Forestry,
and Mines and the Forestry Commission expressed their
support for conducting community consultations and keeping
communication open with local communities about the
future of Atewa. The participants in the workshop are listed
in Appendix 11.
Regional Comparisons of Biodiversity
To evaluate relative conservation significance, the Atewa
RAP survey results were compared with results from seven
other West African RAP surveys, covering 16 West African
forest reserves (McCullough 2004; Alonso et al. 2005; Mc-
Cullough et al. 2005, in prep; Wright et al. 2006a, b; Hoke
et al. 2007). Direct comparison between the 16 sites is difficult
due to wide variation in sampling effort and habitat
types. However a number of observations as to the relative
conservation value of Atewa can be made.
Appendix 12 lists IUCN Red-listed amphibian, bird
and mammal species recorded from the 16 reserves studied
during West African RAP surveys (excluding Schulenberg
et al. 1999) and Table 3 presents summary statistics on the
numbers of threatened species within these taxa recorded
from each site. Of all 16 sites, only Atewa was found to hold
any species of these taxa listed by the IUCN as Critically
Endangered, the highest threat level possible. The frog Conraua
derooi was recorded in Atewa and it is thought that this
area may harbor the most important remaining populations
of this species. Conraua derooi was originally described from
western Togo (Hulselmans 1971) and apart from there is
only known from a few Ghanaian sites, close to the Togolese
border (Schiøtz 1964 as C. alleni). Until very recently it had
never been found again, although numerous suitable habitats
were searched (Rödel and Agyei 2003, Leaché et al. 2006).
Sites at which this species has previously been recorded are
all close to human settlements and hence the persistence of
the species in these areas is uncertain (A. Hillers et al. unpubl.
data). Hence, this is an extremely important finding.
Table 4 shows the number of bird species recorded during
each survey, followed by the number of species of birds
Table 4. Number of bird species recorded during West African RAP surveys, including the number of species restricted to the Upper Guinea Endemic Bird Area (EBA) and Guinea-Congo Forest biome.
Côte d’Ivoire Guinea Liberia Ghana
Maman
River
Ajenjua
Bepo
Boi-Tano Krokosua Atewa
Draw
River
Gola Grebo
North
Lorma
Boke
Mt.
Béro
Déré Diécké
Pic de
Fon¹
Cavally
Haute
Dodo
# bird species 147 153 233 140 150 189 239 143 145 156 126 109 138 155 121 115
Upper Guinea
EBA
8 7 6 4 7 6 n/a 7 6 9 4 3 5 6 1 2
% Guinea-
Congo forests biome
61% 63% 68% 56% 67% 51% n/a 53% 49% 62% 53% 46% 54% 64% 44% 43%
A Rapid Biological Assessment of the Atewa Range Forest Reserve, Eastern Ghana
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